Revelation as new awareness:
This is a modern sounding view. It goes something like this. Revelation is a breakthrough to a higher level of consciousness as humanity is drawn to a fuller participation in the divine creativity. We become co-creators with God.
Unlike the private, mystical religion as inner experience or encounter of the individual with God, this view shares the mysticism but is more corporate in its outlook. As we participate in the great movements of history revelation heightens and enlarges our understanding of the transcendent, of the divine. This is like seeing yourself fall into step with a movement and in it find truth.
God never reveals himself from outside by intrusion but from within by stimulation and enrichment of the human psychic current. The sound of his voice being made recognizable by the fullness and coherence it contributes to our individual and collective being. It leaves your autonomy completely intact. Revelation isn't rearranging your furniture, it is just turning the light on. It enlarges your sense of who you are.
This view then is characterized by discovery of already known truth, or re-cognition. Not the acquiring of new truth. We uncover in the poor, for example, what Jesus is and why it is that we are drawn to the poor. We discover why it is that we identify with a cause because we recognize Jesus in it.
This can be seen in many ways. An example that might strike a chord is the religious right seeing God revealed in the nationalism via the symbol of the American flag. An example is liberation theology. Here, we see Jesus as embodied in the poor. We align ourselves with this movement and in doing so get swept up in this as our revelation of God.
Another example is Jane Fonda. She purports to be a Christian. What has happened is that she has made the discovery that Jesus was a feminist. (Woman at the well, the woman caught in adultery, having such great love for women when it was unpopular to do so, etc. etc.) So, she sees that Jesus now aligns with what she holds dear. Therefore she now blesses Jesus as acceptable to her while her autonomy is stronger than ever. She now recognizes Jesus as the purveyor of truth, something she was in the dark on prior to making this discovery. This feels like revelation to her.
One left.
8 comments:
Sounds like being on drugs. "You gotta open your mind man, let your consciousness be expanded"
That's not too far off, actually. Many Jesus movement people have gravitated to this approach.
Alex knows a guy whose standard operating procedure is to get stoned on weed and read (the Bible). Works every time.
You are going to put your sister to shame with your writing abilities. "Revelation isn't rearranging the furniture, it is just turning the lights on." That is a fine example of (I guess it is) allegory.
I haven't attributed this stuff yet. To this point I am a plagarist.
Metaphor (not allegory...which tells a whole story). The language is good though, isn't it.
I knew allegory was wrong, but couldn't come up with metaphor. Memory is getting worse with each yr., but still remember dance steps without any trouble. When I go to my song library for the song to go with a dance I sometimes can't remember the name of the song. Like my freind Val, who I understand now haS alsheimers(sp), says on the bumper sticker on his golf cart, The Screw the Golden Years!! I was wondering about that plagarism thing, but hated to maKe such an accusation.
I wouldn't be worrying, dad; you're doing very well. I hope I remember what a metaphor is (and perhaps can even use one) when I'm 86 :) B will undoubtedly be giving an adequate accounting of his sources as he ends his series.
No doubt an allegory is a whole story. I was thinking this furniture/lights business was more of an analogy. I think the difference between an metaphor and an analogy is that a single metaphor doesn't really carrying with it the meaning or the point inherently. The analogy gets you a little closer because it contains two metaphors back to back and you get the picture.
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